Coming in at the top of the list has to be Project Connect's decision to focus on the Highland and East Riverside corridors for Austin's big mass transit investment. The decision ignited debate from activists at committee and Austin City Council hearings but cruised to nearly unanimous endorsements by the Central Corridor Advisory Group and council. Still pending though, is whether or not Austin's voters will endorse the plan's cost on its planned November 2014 ballot debut.

Perhaps as a companion to the lead story, we could track the gradual coalescence of transportation plans around Project Connect. Early in 2013, Project Connect brought in Kyle Keahey of engineering and design firm HNTB to lead the effort. Since then, Project Connect has garnered endorsements and launched an outreach effort to Austin's outlying areas.

The next few are tossups. There's the legislature's decision to find an estimated $1.2 billion in annual funding to help Texas' roads to keep up with congestion growth. The Texas Department of Transportation had requested more than $4 billion, and voters will be asked to approve the billion-dollar expenditure in Nov. 2014.

Or, we could point to the four horsemen of lane closures and other traffic delays when the $200 million MoPac Expressway improvement project began work in December.

The Austin American-Statesman dubbed the project the MoPacalypse, but expect it also to be a dry run for many of the features – and yes, delays – we may get a few years from now when the state turns its attention to the other behemoth to the east, I-35. The addition of variable toll lanes will also be something to watch.

As for other transportation news in 2013:

• Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority installed the new MetroRapid stations along Guadalupe Street and Lamar Boulevard. Workers painted a few new transit priority lanes while they were at it. MetroRapid will launch in January 2014, but the new, planned-to-be faster bus service came up in many of the mass transit discussions of 2013, so the progress it made is worth mentioning here.

• Austin's B-cycle stations made their debut late in December. Only 11 stations were opened, but more are on the way early next year. The city also put new separated bike lanes along the University of Texas at Austin drag, as well as added a few new lines on roads across town.

• Rounding out the biggest stories of the year is the city's tepid endorsement of Lone Star Rail's regional link from San Antonio to Georgetown. The city voted to establish zones that will fund the line through property tax growth, but included a number of safety precautions and delayed setting the percentage of tax growth that will go to the project.